Amerasia Admissions Consulting Reviews

I highly recommend Amerasia, especially Paul. Last year, I decided very late in the game (basically <2 months before R2 deadlines) to apply to business school, and was introduced to Amerasia by a friend who also had a good experience with them.

Even though he had a number of clients and I had a very tight timeline, Paul still took me on and helped out every step of the way, from selecting schools, to editing essays, and prepping for interviews. Prior to working with Paul, I spoke to a number of other consultants, and found that the majority of them used scare tactics. They insisted that that I needed an “expert” to help put together my application, that there was no way I was going to make it alone.

In contrast, when I spoke to Paul (and Adam), neither were pushy about their services. In fact, during the chats I had with each of them, they gave me a lot of tips for each school, running through the differences in the programs, and ways that my profile would fit. If I wanted to, I could’ve used those tips alone to outline my essays. That being said, I do believe that Paul truly adds another level of insight to the process. He takes the time to ensure that the schools you ultimately work with him are the best ones for you – I got into both of the schools that we worked on.

When we started working together, Paul and I had very long weekly calls, drilling down and tailoring my story for each of my target schools. My first essay draft, however, was a disaster – luckily, Paul was there to get me back on track. After countless hours and numerous essay drafts, I was finally ready to hit the “submit” button.

Once I got interview invitations, Paul was there, with a comprehensive list of questions for each school. At this crucial stage, he really works to make sure that you shine during the interview; he made the time to help me practice as much as possible, until I felt 100% confident and comfortable with my answers. Paul is extremely dedicated, often moving his schedule around to ensure that he was available to get on calls at any point during the process, whether it was for a burning question or to serve as the voice of reason when the applications seemed to consume my life.

The most crucial part of Paul’s services was his help in making me stay on point throughout the entire process. Whenever my essays veered off topic, or whenever I hit writer’s block, he was there to brainstorm with me. This was crucial, as I was working a stressful job that required travel and irregular hours. Paul kept me calm, organized, and focus through the entire process. The decision to work with Paul was quite clear – the application itself is a huge investment in time and energy, both of which are at a premium when working a demanding job. Bringing Paul into the mix meant that I had someone who had seen numerous successes, and could help steer me in the direction that I needed to go.

Did I recommend Paul to my friends who are applying this year? Yes! I can't stress how much help he was in the process, and I am now happily at my first choice school.

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It was a great experience. I would recommend Drew and Amerasia in general. I got into one of my dream school and I couldn't do without their help. Drew pushed me to get the right story out and worked with me to filter out the ones that actually makes an impact to the reader.

I would recommend the essay service to the least because they have a great team and their writing skills are impeccable.

Resume service was great too. I was very technical focused and they changed it to accomplishment heavy.

I am a GMAT Club member. I can verify if a administrator reach out to me.

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I started thinking about applying to a part time MBA program in late 2012 and started reaching out to numerous MBA consultants in January 2013. I got in touch with Drew Hoff at Amerasia and he was able to give me a good assessment as well as the services Amerasia had to offer. I was immediately impressed with the fact that Amerasia takes a very detailed look into each candidate’s profile and works diligently to make the most out of each candidate’s application. This is the way I felt over the phone and it has reflected all the way into my acceptance into the school of my dreams.

I hired Drew and was put on his roster. Adam Hoff and I communicated via email and he was able to allow me to make my 1 school package payment in multiple payments and at the amounts I wanted to pay. I planned to apply for the Fall 2014 Weekend MBA program at Chicago Booth since my background is in investment management and since Booth is known very well known for finance.

I reached out to Drew in late 2013 and he started by taking an assessment of my profile and academic history as well as some questions about me. He also provided me with tips for getting my letters of recommendations. Our progress hit a snag since I did not do so well on my GMAT the first time around and needed retake. I ended up taking a break up in order to study for my retake until March 2014 when I reached out to Drew again. He was able to get me started on my essays, resume, and interview prep all at the same time. I had my interview in April which was before the May application deadline so the interview prep and mock interview came first. Drew was able to get on a call with me the day before and discuss all the answers to each question he gave me. He had VERY good insight into what the interview was going to be like, the questions which were going to be asked, and the answers that would make the best impression. I ended up doing extremely well during the interview and this made a big impact on my application.

Drew was able to work with me on my resume and essays via email. The process was very diligent, detailed, and thought out. We exchanged several versions of both documents and were able to finish right before the May deadline. Drew’s input was extremely useful and he was able to give me feedback on each version in a timely manner. This was important since I only had a month to finish both. In the end, these two pieces significantly impacted my application.

I cannot speak for other schools since I only used Amerasia for Booth but I can definitely say that Amerasia has a very good grasp on Chicago Booth and I can definitely tell that they carry this understanding and diligence with each and every top MBA program. Amerasia is loved by almost everyone and have good expertise in MBA applications. You cannot go wrong by hiring them (especially Drew Hoff). They will really take care of your application and work with you to get you into the school of your choice like they did for me.

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Guys,

This is the first review I am writing for anyone ever. That should tell you something about how much I value what Paul did for me. I got through one of HSW.

I applied with a bunch of my other friends who used many different consultants including Sandy, Stacy Blackman etc. So I have a pretty good understanding of the benchmark and I can firmly say that Paul goes out of his way to make sure that you not just get into ‘a’ but ‘the’ B-school. Here are the things I loved about him:
Dedicated – Paul is super dedicated to his clients. I feel way more comfortable with verbal communication as compared to written – particularly when it comes down to essays. Paul was great on this front – he spent hours with me discussing my essays – brainstorming the content, discussing the structure and fine-tuning the language. He never said no to a request for an extra call and I think that is very valuable.
Patient – when you write your essays, everyone has a staring viewpoint on what they want to write. And in most cases than not, the final essay turns out to be very different (at least for me). This is perfectly fine but what is really important is the process of getting to the final version. Paul is fabulous on this front as he is very patient and follows a policy of “either you convince me or get convinced by me”. Till then he will keep working with you on your essay. In some cases the essays got to final version in 3-4 drafts but I have some essays which took 10 drafts !! But not once did Paul say a yes to a sub-optimal version. This was also the part that made my experience with Paul ‘Enjoyable’. MBA applications are very stressful and the last thing you want is a consultant who pushes you or does not listen to you.
Strong on structuring – paul has a good logical way of thinking and is not just ghost writer. Being an ex-management consultant myself I was impressed by that. He would always think about the flow of the essay which is very easily lost when you trying to fit everything you have in your mind in 500 words.
Great writing skills – this might not be relevant to many but was very important for me. Paul was very helpful is making my essays more tight and to the point. Also he was able to make them more ‘spicy’ which made it more readable from a readers point of view as compared to a bland version that I would typically send to him.
Interview help – this was an icing on the cake and way beyond my expectations. Paul discussed with me multiple questions for the interview and prepared me well. We spent hours discussing bullets points for different categories of questions and this surely made me super confident walking into the interview.
Net net – go ahead and hire him without any worries. You won’t regret it.

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I signed up for Amerasia super last minute to get help with my R2 essays. I was in a one month time crunch to power through my essays and re-take the GMAT. I applied to 5 schools and worked with Anjali on developing the story for the essays as well as going through various edits through each essay. Anjali was fantastic to work with! I have nothing but great things to say. She was very helpful in assisting me to develop my ideas and very meticulous with her edits. Although I was writing all my essays during the holiday season Anjali did an amazing job of ensuring I got the edits back quickly. My GMAT score was below average but with the help of Anjali in strengthening my essays I got 3 out of 5 interviews and accepted to my top choice school. I also used one of my hours to prep for my interviews with Anjali which was also a tremendous help. I would highly recommend Anjali!

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I want to start off by saying I firmly believe that I would not have been accepted to four top 10 programs if I had not worked with Adam Hoff.

As I began this process (back in January 2013), I knew next to nothing about MBA admissions, and truly was lost as to where to even start. I was studying for the GMAT, had decided that I wanted to attend a "top 10" program (because that sounded like the right thing to do), and was pretty open to moving around, but that was where my knowledge stopped.

I am a big researcher, so I did what many people do -- I reached out to all the big admissions consulting companies. I spoke with ALL of the big players... Stacy Blackman, Admissionado, MBA Mission, Veritas Prep, Accepted.com, Clear Admit, MBA Exchange, you name it. This was a huge investment of time and energy, but this is not only a significant investment of money (no surprise that admissions consultants aren't cheap), but will have a lasting impact on the rest of my life. I will not speak to my experiences with each individual firm, but I will share that generally, I would speak to the founder / CEO who would provide general insights into MBA admissions, let me know my "chances" at some top programs, proceed to apply some broad stroke comparisons to my profile, let me know they would be passing me along to a consultant on their team (who I didn't get a chance to meet yet), and then would proceed to ask if I would like to sign the dotted line. This rubbed me the wrong way, and to be honest, I wasn't willing to take a leap of faith with this process so I kept looking. I will say, some of the people that I spoke with were great, but overall, I wasn't ready to commit.

This is where Amerasia came in -- I stumbled across the company in one of the message boards. They don't have as big of a presence (yet), but I was blown away from the first call. First of all, Adam didn't "pass me off", he spoke to me directly and had no intention of putting on a sales pitch just to have me work with someone else. We spent over an hour talking about his experiences, my background, and what I wanted out of this process -- quite simply, he got to know me, he asked about my biggest concerns, and I could tell he cared about my success. This was the last introductory call that I made and signed up for his complete school package the next day.

I was very, very early to the game and was pleasantly surprised that Adam was willing to help right from the beginning. We worked through my resume to get it sorted out before applications came out, he provided detailed (personalized) strategy guides for me and each of my schools, and when the time came, he set me up with members of his team to work on mock interviews (I liked that he had me meet with other people on his team for this component -- as they did not know me, it would be more representative of the "blind" interview that I would be going into). Also, I cannot stress how much I appreciated his 48 hour response commitment.

This entire process is stressful -- at least it was for me, and having someone like Adam in your corner is a tremendous asset. Admissions consultant aren't able to change your GMAT / GPA, change your job, or make you into someone you're not... they do NOT write your essays and they certainly don't have "a guy" who can get you in... BUT they are able to help put the best "you" on paper. Adam knew the right questions to ask me, to get the right stories, for the right essays, at the best schools.

His knowledge of the process, his understanding of the culture at each of the top 10-15 programs, and his insights from years of working in admissions helped make the difference for me. Thankfully, I was accepted to four premier programs and in the end, Adam was instrumental in helping me make the decision to attend Booth.

I would recommend him to anyone who is serious about getting into a top program, and is willing to put in the time and energy to get there. Pursuing an MBA is an expensive endeavor, but having a consultant ensures that you're putting your best foot forward. Adam was worth. every. penny.

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I decided to work with Adam, based on a recommendation from two trusted friends that both worked with him in the prior year and received stellar results. To be honest, I didn't take the time to thoroughly assess all of the different consulting services available, simple because I didn't feel the need after my initial consultation with Adam.

To provide some background, I had applied the year prior (2013 cycle) using another consulting service, with very mixed and unsatisfactory results. I decided to take a leap of faith and reapply for R1 2014 to my top choices - Wharton (interviewed and dinged R3 2013) and Kellogg. At this point, my morale/confidence was pretty low, but Adam was very encouraging and even offered to provide a complimentary ding analysis, which typically costs $400 with other consulting companies. I was really impressed with the extra step Adam was willing to take to see if he could provide valuable consulting services to me - this showed me that he really cared for me as a person and wasn't trying to push his services onto me. I really appreciated the extra mile he was willing to take, and instinctively, he felt like a great fit for me.

He really helped me boost my confidence during the process, and was very timely with his emails/response (48 hour turnaround time). I also loved that he was very organized, which is very important for me because I'm very OCD myself. He really took the time to tailor guides for each essay, LOR outlines and provided great outlines for resumes that really helped me tighten my essays. Adam doesn't sugar coat anything; he's brutally honest, yet very professional.

However, our communication was limited to emails after our initial consultation. I understand why Adam does this, he just wants to maintain clear communication and leave very little room for any mishaps. I'll admit, this was very anxiety inducing at certain periods of the process, especially during such arduous process - but what I learned was to be patient and just trust the process. Luckily, I was able to reuse a majority of the material I had last year. We just needed to tighten up the points, create more focus and hit a home run with each of the schools I was applying to. I can't say what it would have been like, had I started from scratch. Regardless, Adam is reliable and a great resource to turn to when I had any admissions related questions.

Results: Unfortunately, I got dinged from Wharton without an interview (I still wonder why until this day sometimes, but Wharton was going through a lot of change this years)... but I got accepted in the MMM program at Kellogg with some scholarship.

Thanks for your help Adam!

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I highly recommend Paul form Amerasia for his admission consulting service. Last year I worked with Paul for three top schools and I got accepted by all of them – Wharton, Columbia and Chicago. I know very clear from my experience that I could never achieve this without Paul’s help. And hiring him was one of the most important and smartest decisions I have ever made in my application process.

So I’d like to share some of my insights of Paul’s fantastic service here, as I think people in this forum are deserved to know more about this amazing consultant. I started to look for an admission consultant in February last year. Like many of you, I read through all the consultant review threads in the forum and then set up initial discussions with seven consultants from different firms. Most of them limited the free consulting call within half an hour and just talked about the general strategies in the application (and also try to sell their packages). However, the initial call with Paul was completed different. We talked for two hours! Paul obviously read through my resume and background information I provided carefully before the call. So during the call we discussed many details about my background and possible school selections. Everything was specific about me and I felt like talking with a friend rather than a sales guy. Keep in mind that it was just the free consulting call and there is no sign at all I will engage his service, and his willingness to spend two hours sharing his expert advice on my application really impressed me.

After careful evaluating all the consultants I have talked, I decided to go with Paul for one school package first. And his highly professional performance and beyond expectation deliverables convinced me to sign two more schools with him about one months later. So here is how we worked:

- Paul gave me a very detailed questionnaire to fill in all my relevant information, including family background, academic performance, extra-curriculums and possible story topics – not as in the resume format, but in more complicated and detailed way for my “raw” information. It may take you some time to fill but turned out very helpful and efficient when we came to the essay writing part at later stage.

- Then we set up the kick-off meeting to go through the questionnaire. Paul spent a lot of time and effort to understand me as a person, not just as an applicant. He asked many questions and also recorded down my answers for his study afterwards, which I don’t think many consultants would do that. The whole conversation was very confortable and efficient.

- After the kick-off meeting Paul formulated a specific school strategy plan for me. The strategic plan was fully customized based on my background and it also outlined all the specific and very insightful analysis for each essay topic of that particular school.

- We met for two hours almost every week to discuss my essay draft or his editing work. His editing was very extensive and detailed. What’s the best was that he also included sources and background information with his comments and revising so I could understand better where did he come from and what’s the angle behind. I should say that the before and after versions of my essay were on completely different levels. Even his editing made my essay better every time, he never stopped on that but polished it over and over until both of us satisfied. I must say that for most of time Paul had even higher standards than mine in terms of perfection – I remembered we went through twelve versions of my Columbia essays.

- Paul’s commitment and dedication in his work was exceptional. I know he often worked till very late for my turnarounds and we often talked at his 3/4 am in the morning. He never delayed his deliverables or sacrificed the quality of his work. I knew he worked for multiple clients at the same time but I always received the best service all the time.

- Paul’s school package basically includes everything you need in the application process beside essays. We edited my resume word by word – the final product was neat and elegant; Paul examined my application forms and found out plenty typos, the ones that you would never spot out through your own eyes; he also helped polish the short question answers in my application forms – some of them could be very tricky and make the real difference sometimes; I need to specially mention his superb interview coach / mock interview, which really made me understand what’s behind each interview question and the whole idea about the interview process for each school. I want to thank Paul for his coach on my Wharton group-based discussion. Without his excellent guidance and expert knowledge about the group-based discussion, I would never performed as what I did during the interview.

- Paul has very deep and extensive knowledge about different schools and their programs respectively, which was so important for us to formulate the specific strategies to tackle different essays. He even knows the personal preferences of those admission directors in those schools and the most effective and efficient style that works the best to convey your message to different admission committees.

And I want to highlight Paul’s great personality. He is a sincere and honest man with a kind heart. Talking to Paul every week used to be the most fun and enjoyable hours to me during my whole application. And that means a lot to me. I know he cared my success when I worked with him. My only regret now is that I did not sign more school packages with him. I give my full recommendation of Paul for anyone who wants to make your MBA application journey a fun while fruitful one! PM me if you have any question or need more information.

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Bottom Line Up Front: Paul brings a wealth of experience, knowledge, and a great network to the admissions consulting process. You should capitalize on his services!

Here's the quick rundown on my profile: military, mid 700s GMAT, magna cum laude undergrad at a top 50 school.

Here's why I chose Paul after interviewing a half dozen consultants at other firms:

1) He has integrity. He's upfront and will tell you whether the schools you're applying to are a good fit for your profile. He's not going to BS you. One of the most important questions you can ask any of these consultants is what they think they could improve on in helping their clients. He was literally the only one who gave me a straight answer; all the others blamed their clients for any missteps or problems.

2) He's generous with his time. The free, initial consulting session which is only scheduled for an hour lasted 90 minutes. He made no big deal about it. Consultants at other companies strictly adhered to the timelines given whether it was 30 minutes or an hour for the initial consult. If the company's not willing to go the extra mile to get my business, then I can't expect them to do so once they already have it.

3) He understands people. Paul is great at building meaningful connections with people over skype. It was like having a penpal who knew my whole life story and then was able to advise me on how to present that story in a compelling manner to admissions committees.

Here's what I didn't know Paul was going to bring to the table:

1) Free services. Yes, that's right. I applied to joint degree programs, where I had to write essays and prepare entirely separate applications for the non-MBA part of the programs.
He worked with me on those applications at no extra charge. The other consulting companies, when I mentioned the joint degree, said they would be unable to assist me with that part of the application.

2) Research skills. Going into B-school I had an idea or a general framework of what I wanted to do in the future, both in the short-term and long-term. But I was having trouble conveying my ideas effectively because I didn't have a great grasp of what people in those positions actually do. Paul researched those fields and positions and sent me useful materials to read so I could develop my inchoate desires into something more tangible and compelling to the admissions committee.

3) Editing skills. Paul isn't going to write your essays for you, but he will tell you when your writing is weak and where you can do better. I'm a published author and I can tell you that Paul has a keen eye for editing and for identifying weak writing. Those word limits get tough and he's great at suggesting where you can cut the fat off your paragraphs while retaining your message.

Oh and I'm sure you'd like to know where I'm going: Harvard...'nuff said.

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I worked with Adam for 5 top-10 schools. As an international applicant (one of the largest pool), I'm looking for a big career switch.

School selection (this part is the main reason I chose Adam over than consultants):

I had a lot of consultation sessions, but ONLY Adam thought the situation in my shoes. My list includes 12 top schools at the beginning. Adam helped me analyze each of them, including my chance, each program's pros and cons. Especially, he crossed out some schools that the job placement for international students are not desirable, although I thought they were strong in my target career field!

When I did the consultation sessions with other consultants, they all recommended me to apply top 20 (someone even recommended me to apply top 30) schools. I think the knowledge that Adam possesses about each school allows him to be confident and assist me to get in a top 10 program.

Resume and essay edit

The most valuable part of the service. Adam sent me a lot reading materials related to my short-term and long-term career goals, which I was overwhelmed at the beginning. But it turned out that these homework worked perfectly in my later essay writings. These materials brought me deeper knowledge about my target industry and function, as well as indicated the skills I may already have or I need to develop/improve during the MBA program. The two areas Adam focused on my essays were wording (since my native language is not English) and structure.

Turnaround Time and Price

The turnaround was usually 2 to 3 days for essays (I think this is FAST considering the quality of his feedback), and within 24 hours for general questions. The price is reasonable and considering the quality, especially the result, I couldn't expect cheaper.

I finally got 3 interviews, in one of the top 5 programs and another top 10 program. I am satisfied with the result!

At the end, I want to say that consulting service is not magic. You can't expect consultants could turn a rock into a gold. However, a excellent consultant, such as Adam, could fully support you, and work with him, you will leave no regret to yourself.

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